Community College Baseball: VC beats Oxnard on back-to-back hit by pitches in bottom of 9th

Jared Patterson and Wesley Solomon took back-to-back pitches to the legs to force in the tying and winning runs in the bottom of the ninth as the host Pirates came from behind to beat Oxnard College, 7-6, on Thursday afternoon.

“Our team is full of guys who don’t stop believing,” said sophomore Joe Kelly, who dropped down a key bunt for a hit to extend the rally. “We just come back, come back and string together some magic.”

Their second straight walk-off win over the Condors allowed the Pirates (15-13, 8-5) to keep pace with co-leaders Santa Barbara City and Cuesta atop the Western State Conference’s North Division.

Just like it was stung March 9, when it allowed three runs in the bottom of the ninth in a 9-8 loss at Ventura, Oxnard (14-13, 5-8) was left to lick its wounds.

“That’s about the sixth time we’ve done that in the ninth,” Oxnard coach Jon Larson said. “We’ve just had a tough time closing the door this year. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

For eight innings, it was the Pirates, who left the bases loaded three times, who were regretting missed opportunities.

“We got out of a lot of trouble,” Larson said.

Brandon Shim completed a 4-for-4 afternoon by doubling to lead off the eighth inning and scoring on Dominique Guevara’s single to give Oxnard a 6-5 lead.

When Oxnard reliever Jeffrey Espinoza extinguished Ventura’s rally in the bottom of the eighth, when Hayden Cronenbold’s double gave the Pirates runners at second and third with none out, the game looked decided.

“He threw some great pitches to get out of that,” Adams said. “We hadn’t scored on Jeff in about six innings against him. You start thinking, ‘We can’t score off this guy.’ ”

But Austin Moscorro led off the bottom of the ninth with a single up the middle and sacrifice bunts by Matt Burke and Kelly found soft spots in the Oxnard defense for singles.

“It was strange,” Kelly said.

And it would only get stranger when Espinoza, who only walked one after coming on to wriggle out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth, plunked the next two batters on consecutive pitches to end the game.

“I’ve never seen that before,” Patterson said.

The two teams complete their four-game season series Saturday afternoon at Oxnard.

“We’ve got to face one of the top pitchers in (Billy) Conard,” Adams said. “He’s been dominant for them.”

Oxnard jumped out to a 4-0 lead through three innings. Shim singled and scored on Jonah White’s RBI groundout in the second. Shim and Guevera had RBI singles in the third.

VC cut the deficit in half in the fourth on Burke’s RBI single and Patterson’s sacrifice fly.

Trailing by three in the bottom of the sixth, VC strung together five straight hits to pull even, 5-5, on RBI singles by Cronenbold, Tyler Watson and Harrison Crawford.